Scene 1
Lucy is flirtatious, she jokes about letting Jonathan catch her in her underwear, however I think she actually wants to be! I think there's that little dark desire to be bad and be caught in that position, she has that little opening which allows her to be susceptible to Dracula. We discovered that the girls' mother is dead, this would mean that Mina would have very much taken on the role of being Lucy's mother. I think they both lost a part of their childhood, Mina having to give up hers to look after and dote on Lucy, whilst I imagine Lucy will have since then been permanently stuck in childhood. Also, Lucy loves her penny-dreadfuls. These were like magazines, cheap little booklets giving gruesome, dramatic stories about all of the murders and nasty happenings and Lucy gets them in full colour. Even though it's below her class, she loves the gore, the murder, I think she's fascinated by the death - another fascination that seems to grip every human, this draw and intrigue towards death and destruction - which once again opens her up to Dracula's power.
Satire
The play is very much a satire of the upper class, showing the characters as silly and idiotic, this is especially highlighted when you see how blissful and privileged Lucy and Mina's world is in such stark contrast to the scenes immediately after it in Bedlam.
Suppression of Desire
Another thing that's contrasted between the first two scenes - Hartwood House and Bedlam - is the suppression of desire. Mina and Lucy's entire world is symbolic of this, the Victorian values and life led by the rules of society, governed by morality. You see this completely when it's placed in direct contrast with Bedlam, full of mad people who are completely free of these rules. Whilst Bedlam is terrifying and grotesque, it does has a sort of beauty in the freedom of humanity in it, people completely void of society's and their own constraints.
What we did with this scene
In this scene we decided to have everyone who wasn't directly acting to be sat along the back in a line, in quiet mad character mode. There are a few times when we burst out in reaction. Firstly, when Lucy mentions being caught in her drawers we let out one short burst of laughter. Then at her teasing line to Mina: "What are you going to give him before he goes away?" (Implying something sexual), there's a second burst, slightly bigger than the first. Then finally, when Lucy teases that maybe Mina will give Jonathan her virginity before he goes away there's a real big, proper reaction. The laughs aren't just giggling because they're talking about sex, it's also a bit perverted. This is something that the mad creatures get off on, they are the symbols of succumbing to temptation and your darkest desires that is all that Dracula as a character represents.
There is also another bit that we put in, which is the part at the very beginning of the scene where Lucy comes skipping in and singing. The stage directions say that she sings to her reflection in a mirror and kisses it, however due to the fact that we are trying to keep props to a minimum (since there'll be no opportunity to remove them as no one ever actually leaves the stage, and in any case it's better not to rely on props). We were throwing ideas around and then Yunusa came up with the idea of having someone come on stage and mirror Izzy themselves, so it could simply represent the mirror. Andy decided to have me, the other Lucy in the play, be the mirror, and it looks really good. Having done that I then simply go back and join the line along the back of the stage.
There is also another bit that we put in, which is the part at the very beginning of the scene where Lucy comes skipping in and singing. The stage directions say that she sings to her reflection in a mirror and kisses it, however due to the fact that we are trying to keep props to a minimum (since there'll be no opportunity to remove them as no one ever actually leaves the stage, and in any case it's better not to rely on props). We were throwing ideas around and then Yunusa came up with the idea of having someone come on stage and mirror Izzy themselves, so it could simply represent the mirror. Andy decided to have me, the other Lucy in the play, be the mirror, and it looks really good. Having done that I then simply go back and join the line along the back of the stage.
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